"I cannot spare you yet. I have another plan." "And that?" "A very romantic one, as you have predicted. I propose to set him up in business." "As a gentleman?" "He is that already. No, as a banker." "Indeed!" "What do you think of my idea?" "I have heard only the beginning of it. It is natural enough to feel the inclination to set a handsome young man up as a banker; but I fail to comprehend yet the details of the scheme." "I shall leave them to you." "To me? But I regret to say, Miss Harlan, that I know of no banking-house at present that would employ the services of this embryo merchant-prince." "Oh, but you don't or you won't understand me. What I propose is to found a banking-house, and furnish the capital myself." "What!" Mr. Chelm leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "This is romance with a vengeance. Would I were twenty-five, and in search of occupation! And what, pray, is to be the name of the new concern?--Harlan and Prime; or Virginia Harlan and Company? I am confident it will be a partnership for life." "Francis Prime and Company, of course. I will not submit to be laughed at, Mr. Chelm. This is a serious business matter." "Oh, most certainly! Thoroughly business-like in every sense! My dear young lady, if you expect me to preserve my legal gravity you must not be so humorous; it is beyond the self-control of even a fusty conveyancer. And what part in this financial idyl am I expected to play!" "You are to arrange it all. I am to furnish the money, and remain strictly incognito. That is the first and essential condition I impose." "What! Mr. Prime is not to know the name of his benefactress?" "On no account whatever!" "He will be sure to search the earth until he finds her." "Not if he be made to believe she is ancient and homely. Besides, how is he to know it is a woman?" "Forgive me, Miss Harlan, but no one except a woman could invent such a project. It fairly takes my breath away. How much of your capital do you propose to embark in the enterprise,--the whole four millions?" "No, Mr. Chelm, I am not utterly irrational yet. That is one of the points I mean to leave to your discretion. I merely insist that he shall not be scrimped. I do not think, however, that I care to advance over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? And still you talk of discretion!" "Is not that enough?" "Enough! Why, certainly not. If you are bent upon the plan, at least put it through handsomely, Miss Harlan. Let him have a cool million at once, and be done with it."